Maria Moliner

As mentioned in previous articles, the task of the editor is correcting the translation on the basis of grammatical rules, among other indicators of quality and professionalism. An important source, and in fact the ultimate source for defining words and declaring correct grammar, for writing in Spanish are the dictionaries of the Royal Spanish Academy. Both the Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy (DRSA) and the Pan-Hispanic Dictionary of Doubts are two of many reliable sources of our work as editors and translators.

Today, I would like to highlight another very important dictionary that can be used as a fundamental basis when editing and translation projects: the use of Spanish Dictionary of Maria Moliner, which is a wonderful complement to the DRSA.

María Juana Moliner Ruiz was born in Paniza, Zaragoza, Spain, on March 30, 1900, and died on January 22, 1981. She was a librarian and lexicographer who introduced an innovative vision to the classic example of the Spanish dictionary we all know.

The great contribution of the most recent version of this dictionary, compared to all the information that can be found online at the Royal Spanish Academy, is that it includes the day-to-day activities, the “practical and daily use” of what we can see “in theory” in the DRAE, though it has been incorporating new terms.

In order to see how the terms work and how they are related to everyday life, the Dictionary for the use of Spanish groups them etymologically, instead of respecting the traditional alphabetical order.

To access this valuable source of information, click here.

(Spanish version: https://www.trustedtranslations.com/maria-moliner-2010-09-02.html)